After suspension, Nick Diaz will need a win before getting title shot

If he returns to the cage following his current suspension, UFC welterweight Nick Diaz won’t get an immediate title shot.

Instead, UFC President Dana White said he’ll first need a victory against one of the division’s elite.

Diaz (26-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) hasn’t fought since a narrow interim-title loss to Carlos Condit in February at UFC 143, where he failed a post-fight drug test due to marijuana metabolites.

Diaz and trainer Cesar Gracie initially teased the idea of the idea of the 29-year-old from retiring from MMA. But in recent weeks, Gracie has made a public pitch for a fight between Diaz and middleweight champion Anderson Silva. There’s also a potential matchup with welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, who meets Condit in a title-unification bout with Condit next month at UFC 154. (Diaz, of course, was previously scheduled to fight Diaz in his UFC return but lost the fight when he flaked out on a pair of press conference.)

“When Diaz gets off suspension, he’ll probably fight one of the top guys at 170 pounds,” White said Wednesday. “Then we’ll see what happens.”

Diaz is eligible to return to action in early February 2013.

Diaz, a longtime Strikeforce champion, had won 10 straight fights before his return to the UFC, where he badly beat down B.J. Penn at UFC 137 for a unanimous-decision victory.

This past weekend, White confirmed that Alistair Overeem, who’s under suspension after a pre-UFC 146 drug test flagged him for elevated testosterone levels, will receive an immediate heavyweight title shot upon his return. However, unlike Diaz, Overeem has a win (TKO over Brock Lesnar) in his most recent bout.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.